BoLT Magazine Submission Guidelines
Here at BoLT magazine we love to include submissions sent in by our readers. When BoLT was only a twinkle in a coffee cup we always planned that it would be a magazine written as much by its target audience as by its volunteers. We wanted two way communication, not a magazine written by a handful of women in Dublin making sweeping statements about LGBTQ experience all over the country. So talk to us!
We welcome all submissions, but we publish selectively. When you send in a submission to BoLT Magazine there are a number of things we look at when we’re considering publishing it. Here we explain most of the logic behind selecting submissions for inclusion, so that you can give your submissions the best chance of being accepted.
BoLT Magazine is aimed at Irish LGBTQ women and most of our articles fall within this remit. Nonetheless our readership and articles reflect a much broader experience than that, an unexpected development for BoLT that we embrace and encourage. As such, we do also accept international articles and articles by and about experience along the whole trans spectrum.
Content:
Written submissions can be stories, poetry, observations, opinion pieces, book/film/music reviews and interviews. They can be anything else we’ve omitted but that you think BoLT would benefit from.
Every issue of BoLT has a theme, and we favour submissions that deal with that theme whether directly or in a more abstract way, so it’s a good idea to check out our Call For Submissions when you sit down to write. That said, if you have a burning desire to say something unrelated to the theme and you say it well, we may overlook the theme of the issue. But by and large it’s good to stick to the Call for Subs.
BoLT is a women’s LGBTQ magazine and though we sometimes accept general articles on politics, travel etc we strongly favour submissions explicitly relating to female experience and the LGBTQ community.
We prefer to publish original pieces which have not been published elsewhere (including blogs). If you have a piece which has already been published but you feel would be a strong contribution to BoLT contact the editor to discuss and we will decide on a case by case basis.
We like to think we run an open minded publication. We don’t mind getting submissions that are a bit changeling or that fall a bit outside our remit. Though we don’t have hard and fast rules about acceptable subject matter we may rule out an article if we deem it to be offensive or inaccessible. Articles which incite hatred or discrimination against any group or individual - on the basis of their race, religion, nationality, colour, ethnic origin, membership of the travelling community, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, illness, age or anything else - will not be accepted.
Bear your reader in mind when you are writing. You might be an expert on the migration of bees but our average reader is not - be sure to keep your article accessible to all by qualifying and/or explaining the basic information. For example, if you are writing an article about kink you may know that all scenes are prenegotiated and consent is paramount but if that doesn’t come across in your article you may give the reader an incorrect and disturbing impression of the kink scene.
If you are writing an opinion piece or journalistic article check your facts before submitting. Have at least one decent reference for anything you assert (wikipedia, twitter and so on do not count). Consider if your article could negatively effect anybody before submitting, and particularly bear in mind the right of every individual to privacy. Sadly it is still the case that being outed - even in a magazine aimed at LGBTQ people - can be extremely problematic and upsetting for some people.
Length:
Written submissions should ideally be 500-1000 words, and certainly no longer than 1500 words. If you have something that you feel needs to be much longer or shorter drop the editor an email to discuss it.
Visual Submissions:
Though most submissions we get are written, we’re interested in receiving imagery too. Visual submissions can be intended to accompany articles or to stand alone.
Photography, illustration and design are all welcome, but bear in mind that whatever you submit will need to print reasonably well in black and white. If your artwork is particularly strong - and related to the issue theme - we may want to feature it as cover art, in which case the creative director will get in touch with you to talk about it.
A note for photographers: Though photographs of ‘crowd scenes’ in public places are the bread and butter of photojournalism please remember the right of every individual to privacy and consider the people you are portraying and how. Being photographed at an LGBT event could potentially cause great upset to some individuals. If you are using models or if the photographs include minors you must send us a copy of the model release form.
Please supply artwork as high quality PDF, JPEG or PS files with a dpi of 300. If you’re unsure what this is or how to do it feel free to email artdirector@boltmagazine.ie
Presentation:
Please go over your submission carefully for spelling and grammar errors before sending it in to us. Though we do have an enthusiastic team of editors who will work with you if major changes need to be made, ideally we would like incoming submissions to be well polished and as good as you feel you can possibly make them. As they say, you can’t do better than your best.
The title of the article and the authors name as you would like it to appear in the magazine should both be included at the top of the submission document, not at the bottom, in the email body or the email subject line.
BoLT is an Irish magazine, we therefore favour British English spellings over American English spellings.
All articles will be reformatted when the magazine is being produced, so don’t kill yourself laying out your submission. Please leave a single line break between paragraphs, do not indent. Emphasis can be indicated with CAPS, italics or in bold, the designer will note which method you prefer but this may be changed in the magazine.
‘She opened the door slowly, her heart beating in her chest...’ Those three dots are called an ellipsis. Technically it’s one punctuation mark and not three full stops in a row. If you are familiar enough with your software to insert an ellipsis please do. If not, make sure you use three full stops not four, five or two.
After a full stop hit the space bar just once before starting the next sentence.
Punctuation is a powerful force, use it with care and restraint. One exclamation mark is better than three, and often no exclamation mark is best of all.
Finally:
The decision to include submissions is made by a vote within the core BoLT team. There is a limit to how many articles we can publish in any issue so even if your submission is not published in the next issue we may publish it at a later date. Some submissions may excluded permanently on grounds of quality, length, content or tone. If you have submitted work to BoLT and you feel the decisions not to publish it was unfair by all means contact us and we will explain the reasons to you.
By submitting to BoLT you grant us permission to publish your work in digital and printed format. Work must be your own and you must have full rights to submit it for publication. By submitting you agree to any editorial changes made to your submission if it is written, if it is a visual submission you agree that it may be cropped or otherwise altered for publication.
BoLT is a voluntary project and at present no contributor or volunteer receives any financial compensation for their work. While every effort is made to ensure that content is correct and accurate at time of publication, BoLT, the publisher or the staff cannot be held responsible for any mistakes or omissions.